MARLBOROUGH – Two days after the company filed for bankruptcy protection in Nevada, Secretary of State William Galvin's office on Tuesday filed a complaint against telecommunications and marketing firm TelexFREE alleging it to be an international, "billion-dollar pyramid and Ponzi scheme."

Galvin said the company, which is accused of running a multi-level marketing scam that specifically targeted Brazilian-Americans, is also under investigation at the federal level by the Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Attorney's office.

While the company purported to sell an Internet-based phone service, Galvin's office alleges TelexFREE's real operation was as "an elaborate internet-marketing machine" in which customers, called "associates" or "promoters," paid the company to be able to post ads and recruit other customers, for which they received guaranteed yearly returns as high as 250 percent.

Like with all Ponzi schemes, however, "once the music stops, there's never enough chairs" for all the investors, Galvin said. That end came for TelexFREE in early March, he said, when the company began shifting its business model to sales of its phone product, which according to the secretary's office would have never been able to match the income customers were deriving from the marketing operation.

Already shut down in Brazil since last June, TelexFREE became the subject of Galvin's investigation several months ago, he said, adding, "we've been suspicious from the beginning" that the company was a Ponzi scheme. During its investigation, the secretary's office became aware of the separate federal investigations of the company. Those agencies requested Galvin not file a complaint, he said, "because they were worried about asset protection."

But when state investigators learned on Monday of the company's filing for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada, Galvin said "any concern about freezing the assets was gone."

"We felt we had to act," he said, to begin securing any assets the company still had and try to stop more customers from signing up with the company.

In a press release issued Monday, TelexFREE portrayed the bankruptcy filing as a step toward becoming "a stronger and more competitive company," and assured it had enough cash on hand to continue running its business. But by Tuesday afternoon, Homeland Security Investigations special agents were searching the company's 225 Cedar Hill St. offices and, according to a Marlborough police officer standing guard at the door, there were no TelexFREE representatives inside.

Attempts to reach the company through an email provided on its website were unsuccessful Tuesday. By late Tuesday afternoon, the site was down.

Steve Labriola, a spokesman for the company, could not be reached. His voice mailbox was full.

After announcing on Tuesday morning it had filed the complaint, which specifically charges the company with the fraudulent offer and sale of unregistered securities, the secretary's office fielded many calls from TelexFREE's customers who were worried about recouping their investments, according to Galvin.

Page 2 of 2 - "I can't speak at this point whether there will be assets found," he said, adding the company, in over two years of operations, had raised more than $90 million in Massachusetts alone.

In its bankruptcy filings, TelexFREE estimates it has between $50 million and $100 million in assets, but between $100 million and $500 million in liabilities, as well as more than 100,000 creditors.

The secretary's office's complaint seeks an order for TelexFREE to shut down its multi-level marketing operation, offer restitution to investors, and pay a to-be-determined fine.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, following its protocol, on Tuesday would neither confirm nor deny it is investigating the company. A call to the U.S. Attorney's Boston office was not returned before the Daily News' deadline.

Homeland Security Investigations, which is a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also could not be reached. Agents at TelexFREE's Marlborough offices on Tuesday afternoon would not offer comment.

Scott O'Connell can be reached at 508-626-4449 or soconnell@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottOConnellMW